Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-10-04

Sustainable Model Village Programme for Poverty Elimination

- The Cabinet has already declared the Year 2017 as the “Year of Gaining Freedom From Poverty”. While the poverty of a person or a family will not be reflected merely through the minimum income they receive, the 'house' they reside in could be considered as a primary indicator to society of their poverty. According to the data and information published by the Department of Census and Statistics and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 165,000 of people identified as the 'extremely poor community', are living in either huts, shanties or line rooms. Similarly, 63% of the poor population resides in houses which are less than 400 sq.ft. in extent and another 10% lives with no toilet facilities while a majority lives without having access even to electricity. Considering this state of affairs, the Ministry of Housing and Construction has proposed to implement a 'Sustainable Model Village Programme for Poverty Elimination', to coincide with the Poverty Alleviation Year which falls on Year 2017. Accordingly, the joint proposal made by H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena and Hon. Sajith Premadasa, the Minister of Housing and Construction, to implement a programme to construct a total of 12,500 housing units, inclusive of 20 model villages for each district, comprising of 25 housing units of 550 sq.ft each, covering the areas where most indigent people exist, stricken by extreme poverty, was approved by the Cabinet.